The most recent gushing about Denmark has come about because of the Danish TV series “The Killing” (Forbrydelsen) currently showing on BBC4. The Telegraph and The Spectator all seem to like it too. The TV series has even warranted separate articles (such as: Sarah Lund’s Faroese jumper is the surprise star of BBC4′s The Killing) about the knitwear being worn.

As an aside, I met an elderly woman in a car-park on Saturday who said she had seen my Danish flag on my car and asked if I was Danish. She moved to the UK in 1966. She is also watching “The Killing” but she mentioned that she found it hard to understand the Danish spoken by the younger actors in the series, whereas the older actors were not a problem for her.

In reality, the Netherlands is much closer to the UK than to Denmark. Denmark doesn’t even share a border with the Netherlands. Look at the map and notice the two lines going from London to Copenhagen (the capital of Denmark) and from London to Amsterdam (the capital of the Netherlands). While we are dealing with this particular set of misconceptions, Denmark, Norway and Sweden are the countries most often associated with Scandinavia. Some other countries are sometimes included, but the Netherlands never are, unless you are Anglo-Saxon. Yes, the Americans are also clueless in this regard, but as the British are so much closer to each country they have less of an excuse.

I have found that I’m not the first one to comment on this issue, one of my compatriots has her own blog entry about it here.

But most of the relevant websites I have found show how Anglo-Saxons mess it up. So here is another blog welcoming a Dutch Danish company to Toronto. Here’s a person asking for a reference to a Scandinavian (though preferably Danish or Dutch) restaurant. The people behind the Simpsons got it wrong (Little Orphan Millie) though it is of course difficult to know whether that was part of the pun or not). But then there is a person asking (based on the Simpsons episode) what the difference between Danes and the Dutch are. Should I laugh or cry about the person answering that they are both beer drinkers, cheese eaters and (wait for it) Scandinavians?

• Honeymoon Phase
• Negotiation Phase
• Adjustment Phase
• Reverse Culture Shock

As a teenager, I lived with a family and went to high school in the US for a year. I experienced some culture shock, so before our first move to the UK in 1991, my wife and I discussed how culture shock might affect us. Speaking for myself, I certainly went through the “honeymoon phase” were I regarded many (most?) things about the UK as wonderful. The “negotiation phase” is supposed to be the part where you find you dislike the country you are in and everything back home is much better. That happened to me when I was in the US, but it didn’t happen to me during that first stay in the UK. I went straight from the “honeymoon phase” to the “adjustment phase”.

Reverse Culture Shock

you are not supposed to find it difficult to return to your native country, are you?

When we returned however, we experienced what I have always called “reverse culture shock”. I always thought it was something only my wife and I had ever had because it seemed so ridiculous to experience culture shock when coming back to your native country. But it is on the list of the different phases of culture shock in the Wikipedia article. Our thoughts on returning to Denmark after 6 years in the UK were that Denmark had changed a lot while we were away. After some time the realisation came that maybe we had probably changed more than Denmark. Whatever it was, it was not easy to deal with because it was so unexpected. I mean, you are not supposed to find it difficult to return to your native country, are you? At least we thought it shouldn’t be. The reverse culture shock has certainly been one of the motivating factors in our decision to move back to the UK.

Second Time

I was however somewhat concerned that after being back in 9 years in Denmark and still not feeling completely settled back in. Would we be disappointed upon moving to the UK again? Where we seeing the UK through rose-tinted glasses? So what was it like the second time? Not sure, I don’t think my experience this time fits neatly into the phases above. I think I’ve been somewhat sad that we didn’t adjust properly back to life in Denmark. There are aspects of Denmark and life in Denmark that I miss more than last time. But it was an informed choice and overall I am satisfied with our decision.

We have met another Danish family here who went through the same experience of living in the UK for some years, moving back to Denmark and not settling back in and finally returning to the UK and with no plans to move back to Denmark again.